I know that posting has been light/non-existent. Between dealing with the house, and all the travel (I’ve been in DC most of the week, going back home tonight), I’m suffering from a little blog burnout. But things will probably be back to normal on Monday, probably until Thanksgiving, after which I’m off to Luxembourg and other European destinations.

There is a Greek myth, which may or not be true, that @n@l sex is called “Greek” because the ancient Greeks used it for birth control. Well, a clueless couple in China failed to get pregnant for four years because they were doing it wrong. At least for that purpose. Hopefully they were at least having a good time.

A history, as it approaches first air under the gear. As I noted in an email to the person who sent me the link:

“Stratolaunch has never made any sense to me as a business. Gary [Hudson]’s theory is that it’s the Glomar Explorer of space: a civilian cover for a black operation (in this case, perhaps as an X-37 launcher capable of single-orbit rendezvous). But it seems nutty to me to make your business dependent on a single carrier aircraft. Orbital got away with it with the Tri-Star but at least there they could have gone to the boneyard for another one if they’d lost it. Look how much time it’s taken to even do taxi tests with a single vehicle. And they only this week announced (again) their plans for the orbital launcher, now not to fly until 2022, over a decade after that press conference.”

I also think that Allen placed entirely too much faith in Burt, who is an aviation genius, but not necessarily a space guy.

Due to its geography, Russia is largely unable to make Falcon-style reusable boosters that would make vertical powered descent to a movable platform at sea, and so it has to follow an alternate path sticking to horizontal landings or relying on parachutes, he said.

Yes, because they couldn’t possibly land vertically down range, where they currently dump their expended first stages.